India decides: Vote counting underway in world's biggest election

Surjeet Singh, 50, has seen various governments come and go in his 25 years as a cab driver in Delhi — but none with a stronghold like the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he said on Tuesday as officials count votes across India.

“Everyone I’ve spoken to today says BJP is coming back,” he said. “For us middle-class people, (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) is the only one who has done anything, who has shined India’s name abroad."

Modi has twice ended an election campaign with meditation. But he has recently been making increasingly grand displays of piety, to capitalize on Hindu-nationalist sentiment as he eyes a third consecutive five-year term in power.

Singh said he had been monitoring the polls all morning as early results roll in, and though the BJP hasn't been doing as well as he anticipated, he was confident the party would reach its goal of a parliamentary supermajority.

Early results: As of noon local time,the BJP has secured one seat and is leading in more than 230 constituencies, while the main opposition Congress party is leading in 96.

Doubt trickling in: Even within the BJP,there's now a seed ofdoubt about the party's ability to win a supermajority, which requires controlling 400 of the 543 available seats.

“The counting is still on so we can’t say anything definitively... Maybe not 400 seats, but we will get 360 seats,” said Rajgopal Kashyap, a 28-year-old BJP party worker who traveled to Delhi from Uttar Pradesh state to witness the election results.

Speaking to CNN from the BJP headquarters on Tuesday, he said that they still had hope.

“Even if we don’t get 400 seats, we will try harder. But we know we will form the government in any way," he said.